EU summit: Orbán leaves room during Ukraine decision
Photo: Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary (facebook.com/orbanviktor1)
At the EU summit in Brussels on December 14, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban left the room as the bloc's leaders made the decision to initiate negotiations regarding Ukraine's accession, writes The Guardian.
The head of the Hungarian government, who opposed the EU leaders' decision on Ukraine's Eurointegration, confirmed this reaction, as reported by three EU diplomats.
Later, Orban published a statement on his social media account reiterating his position that Ukraine is allegedly not ready to start negotiations on joining the bloc. He called the EU leaders' decision "bad."
"Ukraine's EU membership is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision!" written on Orban's Facebook page.
He also added that Hungary has decided that 26 out of the 27 EU member states can "go their own way," but Budapest remains aside from such a decision.
The decision on Ukraine's accession at the EU summit and Hungary's position
At the EU summit in Brussels on December 14, the European Council supported the start of negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova to the bloc, as well as granting candidate status to Georgia.
According to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, this is a "clear signal of hope for their peoples and our continent."
Prior to this, the European Commission recommended starting such negotiations in its report, but Budapest opposes this decision.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that his country is not against Ukraine's accession to the EU, but the question of opening negotiations should be postponed for six months.
More detailed information about what happened at the EU summit can be found in the material by RBC-Ukraine.
